7 Days 168 Hours

After an apocalyptic world war an ultra-nationalist government assumed control of Britain. To rebuild the ravaged population and ensure a high birth rate, despite a massive male fatality rate during the conflict, the government decided to implement the controversial Asquith doctrine. A radical plan that stated on the 20th of May that all women over the age of 16 would become the property of the first male over the age of 18 who would claim them, to do with whatever they wished. This ownership would be shown on an electronic bracelet worn about the wrist and connected to the database of the central government in Whitehall

4th of May 5:00pm

Radio One was constant background noise in the store, a small lubricant to the working day, which like all work was often dull and repetitive. The store was a charity shop specialising in second hand clothes and Bric-à-brac which was sold to help fund the fight against poverty. Not that any of the workers were there for that cause. The workers in a charity store can be divided into two types, volunteers and paid workers. Volunteers were there either to work off community service or to improve their college applications whilst the only paid workers were the manager and deputy manager of the store and just one of those, the deputy manager, was in the store at the time.

Henry, the deputy manager was a twenty nine year old veteran of the southern front who had been volunteering in the store to beef up his own college transcript when conscription began. This brief foray into volunteering had been his only civilian work experience so he had applied and been accepted for the job after demobilisation. He was just closing up for the day when it came on the Radio

"The Prime Minister has announced the immediate implementation of the Asquith doctrine, I repeat the Asquith doctrine is in effect"

Henry slowly walked to the front door and closed it, producing a key from his pocket he locked the door. Inhaling a deep breath he held it in for several seconds, before walking into the back rooms, where he could hear concerned voices. There were four women in the room, exhibiting between them a good cross section of the possible reactions to the dramatic news.

Jess was a seventeen year old brunette who was in the store trying to improve her chances of acceptance into Oxford, but was at that moment curled with her knees against her chest, hyperventilating and on the verge of tears. Sally was a blond full figured girl in her early twenties who worked in a munitions factory most days and was an enthusiastic member of the party, to the extent that she was the only female Henry new who supported the Asquith doctrine with the caveat that her boyfriends had planned on claiming her. She was calmly sorting through a bag of donations, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Gemma on the other hand was brewing a pot of tea, which was her response to every situation good or bad, although on this occasion her hands were not quite steady and she kept on shaking her head as if a bad odour was caught in her nostrils. She was a small girl with a thin stomach and dark caramel skin over an angular face framed by black hair falling to her shoulder blades which betrayed a slight quiver, Henry suspected she was of Indian origin but had never asked. The final girl was Angel, she was smoking.

Henry asked her to put out the cigarette, which she did with an upraised finger and a glare of thunder. Angel was working off community service for spraying graffiti, but resentful of the time she had to spend in the store, she had offered to give Henry a hand job if he pretended she attended but didn't. Henry had turned her down, and turned her down again when she upped it to a blowjob, although that second refusal had come more from the shock of the situation and an automatic reaction than a great sense of integrity, he had regretted it later, but never brought it up.

Henry thanked Gemma, for the cup of tea she handed him and addressed the room.

"Do you all have family or friends coming here to collect you?"

Henry asked more in hope than expectation and he was swiftly disabused of the notion. Sally stated her boyfriend was on a tour of duty matter of factly and with a little shrug, then went back to sorting clothes. Gemma had her arm around Jessica's shoulders, she explained that her father only got off work very late at night and she had no one else. Her predicament was still better than Jess's, who between sobs, said that she lived only with her Mum. After a large sniff Jess elaborated that her uncle had been coming to claim her and her Mum, but he hadn't arrived yet and wouldn't do so until the 15th of May.

"Think trying to catch us off guard is probably why they implemented the Asquith doctrine early" Angel added unhelpfully.

Henry sighed, he had been planning on staying inside and out of sight on A Day. He wasn't a feminist or homosexual, but he certainly didn't want the hassle or responsibility of owning another person. Gemma could probably wait it out, but the others were going to be in trouble. Angel was definitely the biggest nuisance and she hadn't said a thing about leaving or being claimed, definitely a very bad sign. It was while these thoughts were rushing through his head that a loud crash sounded from the front of the store. It turned out that Gemma couldn't afford to wait, none of them could.

"Quickly, I'll take you all we can sort it out later" Henry said, Sally gave a nod and asked what Henry's ID number was, 241725461798 was the reply and she immediately began typing it into her bracelet, followed by Jess and Gemma. Angel looked on with eyebrows raised.

"You're not serious?"

"Look, I don't know who's at the front of the store but I wouldn't risk it" Henry commented and with another upraised middle finger to him she asked for the ID number to be repeated and tapped it in. This appeared to be just in time, as the door opened and a barrel chested man standing roughly 6ft 4in stepped into the room. Henry ignored the fear pounding in his head and stepped forward.

"They're mine, all of them" he stated, painfully aware that the man was probably double his weight and five inches taller. The potency of the moment lasted until he was distracted by the snort that came from behind him, almost certainly from Angel in response to his announcement. Fortunately, the man was satisfied with clapping him on the shoulder and stating how much fun he was having, before leaving the store through the window he had just broken. Letting out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding Henry swallowed a big gulp and suggested he fetch the car, whilst the rest of them stay there.

When he arrived with his car, a small hatchback bought with army redundancy pay. Henry endured the inevitable comment from Angel about how bad it was, the comment in this case being perfectly accurate but not exactly helpful. They all got in, Sally in the passenger seat, with Jess between Angel and Gemma on the back seat.

Immediately they fell to talking about the legal implications of the events of that day. Jess was well versed in that side of the matter, as she intended to study law, so was able to tell the group that transferring registration was impossible for the first month but after that could be done freely. However in the first week any woman out of sight of her owner, a term which earned her a fierce look from Angel and a disapproving one from Gemma, could be registered to any man they meet. Turning on the radio in the car, the news said there were riots and it wasn't safe to go out for now and indeed there was expected to be trouble all week.

In short, it meant that by the time they arrived at Sally's house, the volunteered and agreed destination due to its large amount of bedrooms and rural location, a plan was put in place. They would stay at Sally's for a week before the girls would attempt to find new protectors, such as, in the case of Gemma her father or her boyfriend in Sally's situation. Then Henry would go home and, after a month, arrange to transfer the registration to whoever they wanted. It seemed relatively easy and Sally's home once they reached it was comfortably big, even with four guests. Apart from a brief worry about how Sally had managed to get enough clout with the party to obtain such a large house, Henry was not overly worried, with the situation, when he settled down to sleep that night, after a night hostess cooked dinner. It would be his last such peaceful night for some considerable time.

The trouble began bright and early at breakfast. Sally had thoughtfully provided clothes from her boyfriend's wardrobe for Henry to wear and had done the same for the other girls from her own wardrobe. Henry came downstairs in a borrowed t-shirt and jeans, picking up an apple from the fruit bowl, savouring it whilst sitting at the kitchen table. Gemma meanwhile offered tea in her loaned pyjamas and Jess ate cereal in her clothes from yesterday. Angel walked in wearing a black lacy thong and matching bra lowering herself directly opposite Henry and fixing him with a look daring him to challenge her. Angel had naturally brunette hair with a red streak in its left side, the hair fell loose to her neck, whose skin was lightly tanned, all the way down to her feet. Her ribs were slightly noticeable beneath the swell of her small breasts and Henry briefly wondered if she normally had enough to eat. Then becoming embarrassed he looked down and carefully studied his apple, which was of the pink lady variety, whilst Gemma coughed, to cover surprise and then offered Angel tea, which she accepted.

At that point Sally walked in and immediately asked Angel why she wasn't wearing any clothes. Angel replied that she was wearing clothes. At this point the crux of the confrontation became apparent, that Sally in a misplaced fit of domesticity and put Angel's clothes in the wash without telling her. Angel as a result was refusing to wear any of Sally's clothes which would be much too big for her anyway. The result being that Angel stomped off still very close to nude.

Henry was perturbed by this situation, as whilst he enjoyed the sight of Angel in her lingerie very much, he was not at all sure it was worth Sally and her arguing about for a week, until they could disperse their separate ways. Despite this disturbance by and large Sally and Angel simply avoided each other until lunch, which Angel attended without feeling the need for a top beyond a bra or a bottom beyond underwear. This was ignored however and when Gemma declared that she was bored, with everyone being confined within and the electricity being on for only two hours a day, she was not alone. To resolve this problem it was agreed that they would all play Monopoly in the early afternoon and hence at two thirty the party gathered in the living room.

Henry, Gemma and Jess trooped down in their borrowed clothes to find Sally setting up the board. Angel then walked in, provoking Henry to study the rules most attentively as she was still only clad in underwear. Sally decided at this point to launch an attack and declared that she couldn't play without putting something else on. Angel asked whether her clothes were ready and receiving a reply in the negative, smirked and made to sit down. Upon Sally repeating her directive, Angel declared she was not going to put on any of Sally's clothes and made to leave in a huff, before a small smile entered the corner of her mouth and she walked upstairs.

Sally nodded her head in triumph and got back to organising the money before a minute later a frown creased her brow. Angel had come back downstairs wearing a shirt. It fell to her upper thigh, just covering up her underwear and it would not have done that if she bent over. But this of itself was obviously an improvement as she was much more covered than before, the objectionable part being that it was Henry's shirt which he had on the previous day. Angel whilst determined not to wear any attire of Sally's had not felt the same compunction when it came to Henry. The item was not at that moment in the wash as he had risen too late to have Sally enter it a decision he now regretted. Angel sat down in the only available seat, next to Henry, who was wondering whether it was worth launching a complaint and then decided it almost certainly wasn't.

Gemma, who was sitting across the board from them, commented that Angel looked good in the attire. Angel smiled at that comment but turned sour when Gemma also suggested that they looked like a couple. Angel gave Henry a derisive look and noted that they were only a couple in his dreams, Henry mildly corrected Angel that they were nightmares and the game commenced. Monopoly was fiercely contested, but played in a surprisingly upright and sociable tone. Jess won the competition through creating a street of death on the red and yellow properties and no one begrudged her the victory, as she was inordinately pleased with it, whilst never showing glee in the others misfortunes.

The good spirits however did not long survive the end of the game. Sally announced that the washing machine was finished, but that the clothes in it were still very wet. She added that she would be doing a second wash in half an hour and asked her guests that they put anything they wished cleaned onto the kitchen table. This was followed by a pointed look at Henry, the implication being that he should demand Angel give him back his shirt and force her to put on some of Sally's clothes. In this Sally was vastly over estimating Henry's courage and enthusiasm as he was rather enjoying the fact Angel was in his shirt, despite the inconvenience to him.

The result was that fifteen minutes later, when Henry came downstairs, he put his trousers from yesterday on the pile of would be washing but made no mention of his shirt to Angel. In fact Angel made such a request impossible, by her next action. She walked into the room, still clad in Henry's shirt and calmly place down her black bra and underwear on top of the pile of laundry. Henry's mouth opened and he stared at her, painfully aware of what little there was between them. She met his gaze evenly and laughed a small laugh as she walked away, with what seemed to Henry to be a more than usual sway of the hips, although perhaps it was simply that he had never paid as much attention to it before.

Angel gave the pretence of being unembarrassed by her state of dress, which Sally admitting defeat had chosen to ignore. Angel however diligently confined herself within her room and away from everyone else for the next few hours, which perhaps betrayed that she embarrassed or self-conscious. Although to a man with a larger ego than Henry the situation could have been interpreted as an invitation. Luckily such a thought did not even occur to Henry as it would have worried have immensely. Henry thus was not overly concerned about Angel when he settled down in the TV room.

The rationing of electricity, which had begun during the war and still continued, had led to the two hour slot every day, in which power was on, often being filled with a movie. This day was not an exception and a showing of Some like it Hot was about to begin. The TV room of Sally's house contained a big one seater arm chair with a two and a half person sofa arrayed alongside. Henry had noticed this and anticipating he would not be the only one interested in the movie, had arrived comfortably early to settle himself down into the arm chair.

Henry, being by nature a fidgeter desired to be able to do so without disrupting the entertainment of the others. This precaution proved to be a sensible move, as shortly afterwards Jess, Gemma and then Sally had made their way into the room and placed themselves on the couch. With this situation everyone seemed at ease, but as ever, the furies were gathering.

Five minutes into the movie it became clear the status quo could not endure. Angel entered the room, Jess immediately began to shuffle up to provide room on the sofa, but as it would have been very squashed and involved sitting in close proximity to Sally this was an unattractive offer. Angel hesitated at the door and then put herself down on top of Henry.

"I'm sitting here, you can get off if you like" Angel said hopefully. Henry considered moving, but even though he was somewhat panicking over the current turn of events and how it would be perceived by the others, another part of his mind was enjoying the idea and feeling of having the nubile girl on top of him. Additionally, even with Angel on his lap he was sure this chair was still more comfortable than the alternatives of floor or crowded sofa.

Still after another two minutes he had a problem that did make him regret his situation. He did not know what to do with his hands. To place them on the arm rests might seem like an attempt to hold hands with Angel whose hands were already there, otherwise down by his side wasn't very comfortable and the only alternative to those two options was to leave them hanging in mid-air. The result was Henry's hands were constantly moving in their attempts to achieve comfort, this fidgeting annoyed Angel.

Angel with a mild rebuke grabbed his hands and clasped them together on her belly. Henry was relieved in that it was a much more comfortable position for his hands, but he also worried the gesture implied a level of intimacy he was uncomfortable with. It also did not escape his mind that his hands were marooned, between the forbidden seas of her breasts and crotch, both almost unprotected. All this lead Henry to resolve to keep his hands very still, to avoid any accidental eroticism. In some ways he was an enormously optimistic man.

Some like it Hot is renowned as one of the funniest movies ever and although Henry was distracted from it by his surroundings, Angel was not. She was laughing uproariously at the on screen action and it was causing her shirt to bunch around the waist. The shirt had never been, even at the best of times, any more than scandalously short and now it revealed even more. Henry was glad that he was at the back of Angel so he couldn't look and thus wasn't tempted to look. For Henry was sure the shirt was no longer covering what it should be. He was very glad the room lacked light, so that the people on the couch would remain unaware, at least to a casual glance, of the sights on offer.

Still all this excitement was having an inevitable effect on him, which he vainly tried to counter by playing close attention to the film. Unfortunately concentrating on a movie starring Marilyn Monroe is a terrible way to prevent or decrease an erection and soon his full manhood was apparent to the person sitting on his lap. Angel, to her credit, did not blink and simply raised herself then snuggled down using her bottom to push it to the side and whispered in Henry's ear.

"I always thought you were gay. Still, someday you'll have to tell me if that's for Marilyn or for me. Then again maybe you are gay and it's for Tony Curtis" and with that send-off settled down to watch the rest of the movie, seemingly perfectly at ease.

As soon as the movie ended Angel jumped off his lap, letting the shirt drop to its usual place over her thighs and turned on the lights. This aroused Henry's suspicions as to how complicit she had been in the shirt riding up in the first place, her actions showed she was certainly not unaware of it, being careful to conceal it from the others. Henry on the other hand took his time to furtively adjusted his erection and then stood up, announcing he was going to take a nap, he went upstairs and relived the pressure which had built up over the course of the movie.

Dinner that day was surprisingly incident free and everyone lined up afterwards to use the phone, during the one hour that the line was free to use. Henry, having no one to call, declined the opportunity and he suspected Angel was merely pretending to have someone to phone. His focus was soon elsewhere anyway as Jess began crying after failing to reach her mother. Gemma comforted her with a cup of tea, having also been unsuccessful at contacting her father. Her explanation that he was probably working was she said with possibly more hope than belief. Sally also seemed unsatisfied with her call and was vague and terse about the conversation she had with her boyfriend although it did last a considerable time. Angel said nothing and gave nothing away, beyond a telling few comforting and hopeful words to Jess, which if not convincing at least sounded sincere.